Patent Document 1: Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2000-219134
Patent Document 2: Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2004-359061
Patent Document 3: Japanese Published Patent Application No. H7-289504
Patent Document 4: Japanese Published Patent Application No. H5-344951
Patent Document 5: Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2002-153419
Since a moving device in pipe lines moves in the places where human's hand cannot reach, it must move smoothly in narrow pipe lines to reach a target position and must carry out an expected work or job at the target position.
Concerning how to move the moving device, there are some conventional technologies. The conventional moving device is characterized by how to obtain an engaging force with the inside of a pipe line. As the method of a conventional moving devices there is a method that a support section having partially a large engaging force with inside of a pipe line is fabricated in a moving device. And the support portion is made to be a scaffold, a free portion having small engaging force is moved against the support section.
The principle of the method is that the moving device is reciprocated in a pipe line, and the produced engaging force with the inside of the pipe line is adjusted so as to be larger in the forward direction than that in the backward direction by an anti-slip member. The adjustment of the engaging force makes the moving device become slippery in a desired direction. Such succession of the state of slipping in a slippery direction of the moving device appears as if moving in the pipe line. Two of such examples are cited bellow.
In Patent Document 1, a moving device in pipe lines using contraction/expansion of a bellows is described. At the front end and the rear end of the bellows, an anti-slip member presenting conical shape having its apex in the direction of forward movement is provided respectively. The anti-slip member has the engaging force with the inside of a pipe line to be lower in the forward direction and higher in the backward direction. When plus pressure/negative pressure is alternatively applied to the air or water inside of the bellows, the bellows contracts/expands. The difference of the engaging force in the forward movement and the backward movement of the anti-slip member by the contraction/expansion becomes a force to make the moving device move forward. And, when it is made to move backward, the direction of the anti-slip member of the conical shape is reversed so that its apex is aimed at the backward direction. When it is reversed, while the moving device is halted, the moving device is pulled by a tube for letting air in and out of the bellows to change the direction of the anti-slip member.
The moving device shown in Patent Document 2 performs a kind of reciprocating movement by broadening or narrowing sequentially the distance between a plurality of segments. In the side of the segments, two kinds of rod-like arm for forward movement and backward movement in parallel to the reciprocating movement are attached. The moving device shown in FIG. 17a is the outline drawing of an arrangement of the arm when moving forward (reference numeral F). The arm 101 for forward movement is locked so that the end portion of the forward movement side is made to be the base end 101a at the side of the segment, and the end portion of the opposite side is extended outward as a free end 101b when the moving device 100 moves forward. On the other hand, in FIG. 17b, the arrangement of the arm is shown when the moving device 100 is moving backward (reference numeral R). The arm 102 for backward movement is attached in the opposite direction to the arm for forward movement, and extends the free end 102b of the forward movement side when being in the backward movement. Thus, the arm is formed so that it is like a truncated chevron shape narrowed from outward to inward as it goes along the direction of movement. Hence, in the direction of movement, the engaging force with the inside of a pipe line is small, and in the opposite direction, the portion broaden as the truncated chevron shape becomes the engaging force with the inside of the pipe line.
In Patent Document 3, a capsule endoscope equipped with balloons in its front and rear and equipped with a self advancing portion interconnecting them by an extendable bellows is disclosed. In the self advancing portion, for example, by its front balloon being expanded and fixed to the inside wall of duodena and its rear side balloon being contracted to retract the bellows, the rear side bellows can be moved forward. Then, by its rear side balloon being expanded and fixed to the inside wall and its front side balloon being contracted to extend the bellows, the front side balloon can be moved forward. And repeating these series of the process sequentially, it can be moved forward intermittently. Moreover, performing these series of the process in the reverse sequence, the self advancing portion can be stepped back.
There is an equipment in Patent Document 4, in which, after the moving device reaches the target position, for example, photographing is carried out by turning a camera to the direction of arbitrary visual field. In the body of the equipment, a plurality of transducers which is vibrated by an ultrasonic motor is provided, and the camera is housed in a spherical body, and is turned by the vibration of the transducers.
In Patent Document 5, an endoscope is disclosed, in which a rotation body with an installed camera is rotated in a body cavity, and the condition of inside of the body cavity can be observed. The rotation body presents about egg shape and is housed in a capsule base body of cup shape. In the inside perimeter surface of the capsule base body, an electromagnetic coil is arranged. On the other hand, in the periphery of the rotation body, magnets are adhered so that the magnetic polarity is alternated to be as N-S-N-S••. Hence when the current of predetermined pulses is applied to the electromagnet of the capsule base body, the rotation body can be rotated against the capsule base body like a pulse motor.